Pokemon Go Fest refunds all tickets as players can't get game to work

People wander the grounds at the Pokemon Go Fest on July 22, 2017, at Grant Park in Chicago. Many festival attendees had trouble getting the augmented-reality cellphone game to work. By the afternoon, Mike Quigley, chief marketing officer of the game’s developer, Niantic, announced all ticketholders would receive refunds and be issued $100 in credits for use in the app. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

People wander the grounds at the Pokemon Go Fest on July 22, 2017, at Grant Park in Chicago. Many festival attendees had trouble getting the augmented-reality cellphone game to work. By the afternoon, Mike Quigley, chief marketing officer of the game’s developer, Niantic, announced all ticketholders would receive refunds and be issued $100 in credits for use in the app. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

Robert HollyBlue Sky Innovation

Thousands of fans from near and far traveled to Chicago for Saturday's much-anticipated Pokemon Go Fest, but serious problems forced organizers to apologize — and offer refunds — after just four hours.

But throughout the day, festival attendees repeatedly complained about issues that prevented them from catching Pokemon or even logging into the mobile game in the first place — frustrations that resulted in the booing of John Hanke, CEO of the game's developer, Niantic. Those problems were magnified by hours-long lines to get into the park.

At about 1:30 p.m., Niantic Chief Marketing Officer Mike Quigley announced that organizers would be refunding the original $20 ticket cost, as well as offering $100 of in-game credits.

“Obviously, today has not gone as planned,” Quigley told members of the media shortly after the announcement. “It has been a really unfortunate situation.”

The refunds would be issued via email to every player who registered a wristband for the event, he said. When asked by Blue Sky how many people that would be, Quigley said: “We don’t know right now.”

Although he apologized for the technical problems during the Pokemon Go Fest on Niantic’s behalf, Quigley wasn’t ready to call the event a complete failure.

Despite the gameplay issues that many attendees struggled with, others were still able to enjoy the festival and catch “lots and lots” of Pokemon, he said.

“We’ve had a number of technical issues today that have cropped up,” Quigley said. “The good news is that there are a lot of people in the park who are playing Pokemon Go.”

Many Pokemon Go Fest attendees had trouble getting the augmented-reality cellphone game to work.

The event Saturday at Butler Field featured lounge areas for each of Pokemon Go's three in-game teams. It also had photo booths where attendees could take pictures with Pokemon, along with concession and merchandise stands.

Attendees Mark Haberkorn, of Chicago, and Kieng Iv, of Toronto, are members of the Official Pokemon Go 40 Club, an international online community of more than 1,000 high-level Pokemon Go players. Haberkorn and Iv began waiting in line for Pokemon Go Fest at 6 a.m. Saturday, they said.

“I’m glad that they actually recognized that there was an issue,” Iv said. “But I do feel that it was very late, and I do feel that they did it after a significant amount of people booing them.”

In addition to Canada, Haberkorn said that his organization had members fly into Chicago from Australia, Denmark, France, Panama, Paraguay, Portugal, Singapore and “half of the United States.” Ticket refunds and $100 of gaming credits will hardly be enough to compensate them for their travel costs, he said.

“We put together money and stockpiled gifts … in order for these people to be able to make it,” Haberkorn said. “The excitement has just been drastically minimized because of what we’ve experienced today.”

Shawn Caution, who drove nine hours from Buffalo, N.Y., to Chicago with his girlfriend, said he bought tickets online within five minutes of them becoming available.

"We were expecting the servers to stay stable,” Caution said. “The worry was about what would happen in the game."

The technical difficulties were "worse than day one" he said, when the game was first released. The game was notably plagued by technical difficulties for weeks and weeks after it first came out, due to its unexpected popularity. But similar problems hadn’t been seen in 2017.

While Caution took a selfie with Hanke and got his autograph after the CEO apologized, Caution said it wasn't much comfort.

"It's definitely not enough," he said. "They had more than enough time to make everything stable. Am I going to go to another one? Probably not."

As the fest approached the evening, Quigley took the stage again with another announcement: All players who scanned a QR code when they entered the park — verifying their presence inside Pokemon Go Fest — would automatically receive the legendary Pokemon Lugia.